Sneak Peek: Lovely Lilacs, Watering Can Stamps & Summer Greenery Dies

Hello and welcome to day 3 of our Sneak Peek Week!  Each morning this week I am showcasing cards using our newest Summer collection which will be available to purchase on April 22nd.

Today I am sharing ideas using our newest Lovely Lilacs layering stamps, Watering Can layering stamps and Summer Greenery Dies. I hope you love them as much as I do!

Card No. 1: For my first card of the day I chose to go with a red, white and blue color scheme (and a touch of yellow) for my Patriotic Fourth of July inspired card. I stamped my Lovely Lilacs in blue shades and created a shiny red Watering Can to hold them. Red is my favorite color and I would love to own a watering can like this! To continue my grouping, I added Lemons and a slice of watermelon using our Slice of Summer Stamps. A blue gingham print from our Classic Gingham Paper pack and a ric rac edge from our Ric-Rac Border Dies were the perfect way to ground my scene and balance out my blue flowers. Lastly I stamped the word hello from the Potted Rose Stamps. I love that the curve in the word worked so well with the curve of the handle, allowing me to stamp my greeting on the diagonal with the limited space I had left.

Card No. 2: For this 5-1/2" square card featuring the Lovely Lilacs Stamps I started by embossing a panel using our Dapper Diamond Embossing Folder and then layered a scalloped square in the center using our Fancy Frames Square dies. To get the frame to match my flowers, I inked it up using the same PinkFresh Blue Jay ink used for one of the stamp layers. My Mother's Day sentiment was borrowed from our Captivating Camellias Stamps and stamped over the top my Watering Can image. 

To ink up my layered butterflies from the Watering Can Stamps, I used my MISTI tool and applied ink to my first stamp layer using a little finger dauber so that I could blend different ink colors, stamping in between the different colors added. I did this for all the butterflies shared today, stamping them assembly line style by adding lighter inks near the center and working darker toward the wing tips. Using the sponge dauber to apply ink to my stamp image gave it a nice soft blend with no harsh edges. It only took a tiny bit more time, but I think the beautiful blends made it well worth it.

Finally for this card, I adhered some Pure White Jewels to help visually balance out the bare space in the top, right corner of my card--I decided to go with white so they wouldn't compete with the other images and be visually distracting.

Card No. 3: For this card featuring the Lovely Lilacs Stamps, I paired the pretty flowers with our Layered Basket Stamps and two more of the butterflies from the Watering Can Stamps. It worked out perfectly that one of the shades from our Flirty Flowers Paper pack perfectly complemented the Lawn Fawn inks I had used for my flowers. I layered it with our Frilly Frames Polka-dot dies, choosing to only punch out the dots around the scalloped edge and leaving the others in place to keep my background from becoming overly busy. For my greeting I used our Thanks You Words die cut from a shade of purple cardstock to match my butterflies.

Card No. 4: Up next is a card pairing the Lovely Lilacs Stamps with our Botanical Backdrop die cut from green cardstock and inked up along the edges using Mowed Lawn Distress ink. Behind my leafy frame, I inked up a white cardstock panel using Picked Raspberry distress ink applying it darker on the outside edges and keeping the inside portion more light and airy. I tucked the lilacs around the frame to give the look that they were still growing on the bush, adding my birthday sentiment to the center using our Everyday Greetings Stamps with Versafine Onyx Black Ink. Finally I added a couple of pink butterflies from the Watering Can Stamps and a sprinkling of Pink Spinel Jewels to give my card a bit of sparkle.

Card No. 5: The new Watering Can Stamps aren't limited to just being paired with our new lilac images and in fact are a wonderful complement to so many of our layered flower sets! For this card I turned to our Cheerful Daisy Stamps to create my flower arrangement. I was delighted to realize after my scene was set, that the colors almost all could be found in the striped print from our Summer Splash Paper pack. I added my stitched scalloped edge using our Fishtail Banner II Dies and stamped my sentiment on the diagonal to match the angle using our Happy Thoughts Stamps. Lastly I added a rainbow butterfly using the same finger dauber method described for my second card to apply all the colors to my image. I love how it turned out!

Card No. 6: For this clean and simple card I wanted to make the butterflies from the Watering Can Stamps the star of the show, arranging them in a rainbow grid pattern. I started by cutting a rainbow panel from our Spring Fling Paper pack and then layered it with the largest Stitched Rectangle Die which I die-cut a second time using our Frilly Frames Quatrefoil Dies in the center. For my sentiment I white heat embossed a phrase from our new Inside Greetings Congrats Stamps (which I will be sharing more of on Thursday) onto a black banner cut using our Slimline Pennant Dies.

Card No. 7: Switching gears, I have a series of cards featuring the tropical leaves from our new Summer Greenery Dies. For this card, I started by die-cutting the leaves from a number of colorful cardstock scraps and then inked them up along one edge with distress inks to add a little extra interest. I then set to work arranging them to fill my entire card front, cutting off any excess and saving them to add where I had openings along the edges. I kept the rest of my card fairly simple since the background was plenty busy, adding a small ric rac edge along the bottom using our Ric-Rac Border Dies. For my greeting I stamped the word "Summer" from our Radiant Plumeria Stamps using Versamark Ink on a Stitched Oval and sprinkled on coordinating colored embossing powders to match the tropical leaves in my background. I then heat embossed the word "greetings" from that same stamp set onto a leftover scrap of patterned paper from our Spring Fling Paper pack (in fact leftover from Card No.6).

Card No. 8: I created a tropical leaf frame for my next card, pairing the Summer Greenery Dies together with an opening cut using our Stitched Circle Small Dies. For my scene,  I used the boy from our new Kiddie Pool Stamps, together with the beach scene border from our Ocean View Stamps. To mask my black ink that had smeared during stamping, I decided to add some white sea foam using a Sharpie White Paint Pen and I ended up liking the happy accident. It just goes to show that the old adage is true; There are no mistakes in crafting, just opportunities to embellish. I complimented my little scene I added a coordinating yellow flower, leaves and aloha greeting from Hawaiian Hibiscus Stamps.

Card No. 9: My last card of the day pairs the Summer Greenery Dies with our Radiant Plumeria Stamps and Hawaiian Hibiscus Stamps. To help them blend together seamlessly, I chose to fussy cut all my floral images out by hand and added interest to my Summer Greenery green cardstock leaves by inking them up along one side using Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink. For my natural kraft background I combined the outside stitching from our Frilly Frames Retro Petals Dies with the inside portion from our Frilly Frames Herringbone Dies. My "Aloha" greeting was created by die-cutting the letters from our Classic Gingham Paper using our Chloe Alphabet Dies.

I frequently am asked which ink colors I used for my layered images. While I think there are so many great options out there, these are the colors I used today for my stamped images from light to dark:

Lavender Lilac (card no. 2 & 4)
PinkFresh Studio Soft Lilac
PinkFresh Studio Lavender
Gina K. Wild Lilac
Hero Arts Grape Juice

Lilac Alternative (card no. 3)
Lawn Fawn Fresh Lavender
Lawn Fawn Grape Soda
Lawn Fawn Juice Box
Hero Arts Grape Juice

Pink Lilac (card no. 2)
PinkFresh Ballet Slipper
Hero Arts Soft Pink
Hero Arts Bubblegum
Gina K.Passionate Pink

Blue Lilac (card no. 1 & 2)
Hero Arts Dusty Blue
Hero Arts Cornflower
PinkFresh Studio Blue Jay
PinkFresh Studio Sapphire

Green Leaves
PinkFresh Studio Grassy Knoll
PinkFresh Studio Key Lime
PinkFresh Studio Olive

Grey Watering Can
Hero Arts Soft Granite
Hero Arts Charcoal

Red Watering Can
Gina K. Red Hot
Concord & 9th Cranberry

Yellow Watering Can
PinkFresh Studio Sweet Mustard
PinkFresh Studio Marigold

Green Watering Can
PinkFresh Studio Key Lime
Hero Arts Fresh Lawn

Blue Watering Can
Gina K. Blue Raspberry
Versafine Clair Paradise

Basket (card no. 3)
Hero Arts Soft Sand
Gina K. Sandy Beach
Memories Sand
MFT Kraft

To help you line up our layered stamps I've created a special layering guide (you can click on the photo below to view it larger).  The guide shows the stamps starting with the lightest ink color, working towards the darkest, but sometimes I find it easier to start backward when setting up my layers. They both work depending on what your preference is.  The black outline indicates where that layer touches the previously stamped layer. 

That wraps up today's sneak peeks. I'm so happy you spent part of your day with me today. I read all your comments and they mean so much!  I'd love to give a $50 gift code to one lucky winner using the rafflecopter below. 

Our daily contests this week run through Saturday, April 23rd at Midnight PST with winners announced here on Sunday, April 24th. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway Here's a closer look at the our new Lovely Lilacs Stamps & Dies, Watering Can Stamps & Dies and Summer Greenery Dies used today (which will be available to purchase starting on April 22nd):

Other Supplies Used:

Fishtail Banner II Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Chloe Alphabet Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Thank You Words Die Shop at: Sunny Studio	Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio
Fancy Frames-Square Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Classic Gingham 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Happy Thoughts Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Dapper Diamonds Embossing Shop at: Sunny Studio
Stitched Oval Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Flirty Flowers 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Botanical Backdrop Die Shop at: Sunny Studio	Frilly Frames Polka-Dot Shop at: Sunny Studio
Everyday Greetings Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hawaiian Hibiscus Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hawaiian Hibiscus Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slice of Summer Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Slice of Summer Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Summer Splash 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Cheerful Daisies Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Cheerful Daisies Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Spring Fling Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Potted Rose Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Radiant Plumeria Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Radiant Plumeria Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Frilly Frames Herringbone Shop at: Sunny Studio	Frilly Frames Quatrefoil Shop at: Sunny Studio	Captivating Camellias Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Layered Basket Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Layered Basket Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slimline Pennant Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Ocean View Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Ocean View Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Kiddie Pool Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Kiddie Pool Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Inside Greetings Congrats Shop at: Sunny Studio	Pink Spinel Jewels Shop at: Sunny Studio
Ric Rac Border Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts White Detail Shop at: Sunny Studio	Pure White Jewels Shop at: Sunny Studio	VersaMark Watermark Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio